Fleece Sunglasses Case with Oriental Butterflies:

Photos of these colorful sunglass cases have been emailed to us by Beth Maitland Banninger. Beth, thank you so much for the lovely project and detailed instructions!
Here's a photo of ready sunglass cases, and please scroll down to read the instruction:

A few words about the project:

I LOVE how this design set pops out when sewn on polar fleece, so was eager to make some sunglass cases to fill as goody bags for my daughter's eleventh birthday this summer. The finished sunglass case measures 7 inches long by 3 1/2 inches wide and fits even large wrap around style glasses with ease. If you have an embroidery sewing machine with basic construction capabilities, straight stitch and satin or zigzag stitch, you can make several of these in a day!

Supplies list:

A piece of solid polar fleece, approximately 10" x 10" size. Finished size will be 8" by 8", so plan around your hoop size - you should be able to hoop the material.

1. Choose your design and transfer it to your sewing machine (techniques vary by brand, so use your manufacturer's instructions and software).

2. Choose your color palette and assign threads of your choice for your embroidery.
I used my Babylock 6 needle, so loaded all my colors on the machine at the beginning of my embroidery, but the great thing about these gorgeous designs is that any combination of colors looks great as a butterfly!! Be creative!

3. Hoop the cut away stabilizer on bottom, with the polar fleece on top. This stabilizer, used mostly for light to medium weight knits, keeps the fleece from stretching, and will act as the lining fabric, soft and non abrasive next to the sunglasses, inside your finished case. Do not cut away! It will be the lining when you're through.

4. Put light weight water soluble tear away stabilizer on top of the fleece. This tears away when embroidery is finished, and the smaller bits wash away with a squirt bottle or quick rinse. It keeps the loft of the polar fleece down and causes the embroidery thread to lay smoothly on top of the fabric, not sink down into the pile and disappear or show fleece through the stitches. This step produces spectacular embroidery, so don't skip it.

5. Hoop this three layer stack in your medium to large hoop (use larger measurements of fabric if you have larger hoops, see my photo). Because so many machines have various size hoops, mark your fabric in advance to show finished size and place design where desired. Mark design so it ends up along one side of the square of fabric, you'll fold the case in half and want the embroidery to show on top of finished case!

6. Cut to the "finished" size above (8 " by 8 ") placing the embroidery design against one side of this square, so you can fold in half to show design on top of finished case.

7. Finish top opening of case with dense satin or zigzag stitch in contrasting thread in bobbin as well as through needle. I use a 6.0 mm stitch width and a .3mm stitch length to create a beautiful filled in satin stitch. I use a scrap of tear away stabilizer (or woven wash away) under the fabric since the idea is to overlock the top edge of the case. This is accomplished by lining up the outside (left) entrance of the needle just off the fabric, so the satin stitch encases the fabric. Remove extra stabilizer by tearing or washing it away.

8. Fold the case in half, right sides together, and using a straight utility stitch, sew the bottom and side closed. Fleece does not fray or unravel, so trim the seam to about 1/4", and turn inside out.

Ta-Da!! A darling gift case for your friend friend, fill with a great pair of summer glasses, and you're off!